Trying to influence oil supply with military force in the Middle East is not only ineffective, it also is counterproductive.

So says Clifford Singer, a professor of nuclear engineering and of political science at the University of Illinois, who has done extensive work on energy systems for the U.S. Department of Energy. Singer also has been a visiting scholar working with the Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and at the International Atomic Energy Agency. At Illinois, he recently stepped down as director of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security.


Singer’s latest analyses show that despite the deep-seated perception that oil-producing regions retain a special strategic importance, with strong effects on U.S. defense planning and strategy, “The time has already passed when oil was strategically important enough to require individual industrialized nations to be prepared to intervene militarily in oil-producing regions.”